Spoleto Open Its 20th Festival

SPOLETO, Italy, June 23—To the delight of opera buffs, theater lovers, music enthusiasts, and boutique, gallery and restaurant owners and hotelkeepers, the Spoleto festival opened last night in this small Umbrian town.

In its 20th year, the Spoleto “Festival of Two Worlds” is drawing its largest crowds ever. Boutiques have sprung out of former stalls, townspeople have opened their homes and nuns their convents to the visiting American artists, and taxi fares have gone up for the occasion.

Last night's opening featured the world premiere of “Napoli Milionaria,” an opera by Nino Rota based on a play by the longtime actor and playwright Eduardo De Filippo. The composer is of Federico Fellini film‐music fame. The work got short shrift from Italian critics.

The critic of Rome's Il Messaggero called it “a complete failure,” while La Repubblica carried a report describing it as “Mamma Mia performed at a dancing rhythm.” Bruno Bartoletti. the conductor, won praise for his work. Il Messaggero called his work “eloquent.”

More and better things are expected later in the festival. Mozart's “Cosi fan tutte” and Gian Carlo Menotti's “Maria Golovin” are the other operas to be presented. Pirandello's “News From the World” and three one‐act plays by Samuel Beckett are on the drama schedule, and the Cullberg Ballet and the Dennis Wayne Dancers are among the dance attractions announced.

Twenty years ago, Mr. Menotti, the opera composer who founded the festival, chose this then sleepy and destitute medieval town for his multimedia festival.

“When Gian Carlo first came and proposed his idea, the people of Spoleto referred to him as ‘il matto.’ the crazy one,” said Countess Alicia Paolozzi, the Bostonborn socialite who has worked on financing for the festival with Mr. Menotti since it began in 1958.

“The Umbrian are like people from Missouri,” explained Countess Paolozzi, sitting in her small apartment just around the corner from Spoleto's famous duomo. “They've got to be shown it can be done. Then they plunge right in.”

Twenty years after the first festival, the Spoletini are convinced and have taken the plunge. Twenty years ago there were handful of restaurants with lines of hungry people waiting to be served. Today, there are 40 trattorias and tiny restaurants. During the rest of the year there are 20 boutiques; for the festival there are 120.

In addition, Antonio Soldoni, director of the tourist office, explained that the town authorities had taken a renewed interest in the public gardens, and road repair and had created pedestrian zones.

Talk and publicity about the festival have brought different kinds of tourism in its trail. “We're on the honeymoon circuit now,” said Mr. Soldoni. “And we get three of four big conventions here every year.”

Have prices gone up? Mr. Soldoni lifted his head slowly and brought it down again. “Unfortunately they have. But they don't fool around in other towns either.”

Asked whether the festival public had changed since its beginning. Mr. Menotti held out the palm of his hand and then flipped it over.

From a 40‐day marathon frequented by bejewelled, beminked (despite 90‐degree weather) culture patrons, the event has evolved into an 18‐day “festa” that pulls in people from the region and all over the world.

Global Broadcasts

Italian television camera crews were on hand last night for the first live broadcast of the opening performance for Eurovision. Radio crews sent programs to South America and Canada.

Mr. Menotti, who is still the driving force behind the festival, has no intention of changing what has proved to be a very successful formula. He puts together experienced directors and conductors with young musicians, singers, actors and dancers.

The year preceding each festival American musicians are recruited, most of them still in music school. They play for the operas, ballet companies and concerts that make up, some of the 170 scheduled events.

Most tickets are sold out long before the festival starts, and this year it is booked solid.

There are midday chamber‐music concerts. There are also spontaneous jazz and classical groups that strike up in any nook or alley they can find and the only respite comes in the wee hours.

This year, Spoletto's sister city, Charleston, S. C., held its first Spoleto Festival with the same orchestra of young Americans, who played a completely different program.

Another major attraction this year is an exhibition of the late Luchino Visconti's “Costumes for Films,” which will later travel to the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the National Gallery in Washington.

The final concert in the main piazza is to be conducted by the son of a Spoletino taxi driver who retired after 10 seasons of festivals.